Open European Championship

Tamara Echegoyen (ESP) and her team are the new Women's Match Racing European Champions.

Tamara Echegoyen, Angela Pumariega and Sofia Toro took the gold medal in Sunday's final in Helsinki, ahead of Russia's Ekaterina Skudina and her crew of Elena Oblova, Elena Syuzeva.

The conditions at Hernesaari were challenging due to a fickle wind. Early into the day the wind completely died near the shore and the start time was pushed back. Once the finals eventually got underway, it was Echegoyen who had the better start, winning the first match. Skudina came back in the second race but couldn't keep it up in the next two matches. Thus the Spanish team won best-of-five series 3-1.

Meanwhile, Silvia Roca mata of Spain and Mandy Mulder of the Netherlands faced each other in the petit final. Mulder's team first took the lead, but Roca Mata and her crew evened the score in the second match. In the third and deciding race Mulder came out on top to grab the bronze.

Over 250 boats in the Laser starts The Laser and Laser Radial fleets also got their sailing underway on Sunday. They are by far the most popular classes at the Open Europeans: in total there are 251 Lasers competing, 140 Standards and 111 Radials.